Eric Cravey

AXIA is a PR firm that employs 18 associates who work in eights states. They represent people such as Miller Lite and Verizon. I talked to one associate, Eric Cravey and this is what he said:

Approximately how many companies does your pr company work for?
At the present time, we represent nine companies.

What kind of companies are these generally?
We do a lot of work with second stage companies, those that have surpassed the first five critical years of being in business and are growing with customers and have capital to use for such things as marketing and PR.
We have done a lot of work in the staffing, financial services and tech industries.

Specifically what do you do for these companies?
Our specialty is national media relations. We dig in to identify the story the company has to tell and we seek to tell it in the national media. As a company grows, so does their narrative, or story, grow and change as well. So there are continual, ongoing opportunities.

Where do you work?
Our headquarters are in Jacksonville, Florida, but we have offices in Atlanta, Orlando and Tampa.

How long have you personally been working with public relations?
I first began working in PR in November 2001 in a straight PR position. However, in previous jobs, I have done media relations and written news releases that garnered successful media coverage. Those events date back as far back as 1993.

Do you enjoy this work?
I enjoy this work because I love finding the right angle from which to tell a company's story. When we successfully do that, we enact positive change and help our clients grow in stature and that leads to growth in profits.

What is the biggest challenge of working in public relations?
The biggest challenge in PR can be media relations because journalists are often trained in J School that we are the evil enemy. If journalists understood that what we do involves a lot of planning and keen business savvy, the industry would be more respected. I think the sins of the past weigh heavy on the future. In other words, if a journalist has ever been fibbed to by a PR consultant, it can damage future relations for the next PR consultant and so on.

Final Feature

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 11, 2011

Nature Loving Bride Finds Eco-Friendly Wedding Gown Designer

With wooly bear caterpillars and snow fleas stitched into her wedding gown, it was as unique as she is.

Andalyne Stapely-Tofflemire, a nature enthusiast was seeking a wedding that was in tune with the outdoors. A search on the internet brought her to the eco-fashion design studio of Tara 

Lynn Bridal in Sutton Vermont.

“It means so much to me that it’s not just a dress I picked off the rack, but it has lots of meaning,” said Stapely-Tofflemire. She requested a gown with images such as a sunflower, monarch butterfly, woolly bear caterpillar, and a loon to be depicted on her wedding gown

Stapely-Tofflemire is from Ontario Canada, so she worried at first that the distance may be too far for her to work with Tara Lynn Bridal, but it didn’t end up being a problem. An eye opening experience for Stapely-Tofflemire was when she visited the studio. She was impressed by the work she saw so much that she asked to have a shirt made for her husband to wear at the wedding as well.

The princess bodice style dress was made with eco-friendly muslin fabric that is 55 percent hemp and 45 percent cotton. Stapely’s inspiration for the dress was to represent creatures and insects from each of the four seasons.

On her wedding, on Sept. 24, “Friends exclaimed over how realistic the flowers and insects were, amazed at the amount of detail to the point of being able to accurately identify things,” said Stapely-Tofflemire. “It was cool to have three-dimensional artwork, like the fuzzy caterpillar which I fully encouraged my guests to touch and feel for themselves.”

Tara Lynn Scheidet hand designed and embroidered each of the appliqués that were to go on the dress, and she got feedback from Stapely-Tofflemire every step of the way.

Stapely-Tofflemire said, “Everyone had heard of and was so excited to see my dress, that even those who could not make it to the wedding put in orders for photos as soon as they could see them."
                                                                                  ###
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Tara Lynn Scheidet
Owner, Designer
802-745-8042
info@taralynnstudio.com

test sample audio

Perfect Dress Makes for Perfect Wedding

Feature Release

Oct. 4, 2011
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Tara Lynn Scheidet

Owner, Designer

802.745.8042

info@taralynnstudio.com

With wooly bear caterpillars and snow fleas stitched into her wedding gown, it was as unique as she is.

“I've began to gather some pictures of the plants & critters I'd like on my dress,” said soon-to-be bride Andalyn Stapely, at the beginning of the process of the creation of her wedding dress.

The dress that she chose to wear on her big day uniquely represented the four seasons, with plants and animal from each of them. These animals were not just as broad as butterfly or caterpillar, but each was a specific species that meant something to Stapely.

She chose this dress to make her big day memorable – the day that every woman wants to be perfect.

“It's become one of the main spectacles of the event I think,” said Stapely a few days before her wedding. ”And those that aren't coming to the wedding have put in orders for photos because they all so desperately want to see it and Richard's shirt.”

The dress for Andalyn Stapely and the shirt for Richard Stapely were eco-friendly and hand-made and created by Tara Lynn Scheidet at Tara Lynn Bridal in Sutton, Vt., just for this couple and their wedding.

“It means so much to me that it's not just a dress I picked off the rack, but it has lots of meaning,” said Andalyn Stapely.

Stapely is from Ontario, Canada and found the maker of her dress online when searching for eco-friendly wedding dresses. She e-mailed her about a dress for her wedding immediately.

The process of the creation for her dress was a very in-depth one with many calls between the bride and Scheidet. They discussed which animals should go next to which plants and which seasons would contain which pictures.

Inspiration for Stapely’s dress came from the things that she loves and works with, and those are all parts of nature. This is why having an organically made dress as well as one that portrayed who she was and what she loved was so important to her.

A few days before the wedding Andalyn Stapely said, “The last-minute prep is going fine... I'm feeling calm and collected, except for being just plain excited! It's going to be such a fun day. Richard and I wrote our vows while up in Algonquin. We went for a little walk together, found a nice quiet place overlooking a pond, and sat in silence for a bit while we thought up our own vows.”

This is a beginning that promises to lead to a happily ever after.

###

PR Disaster

Polar Bear Killed
First they're killing people, now they're killing polar bears.

BP caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history, while killing 11 people, now they've killed a polar bear which is an endangered species. BP has not been having a good year.

This female bear was killed on Aug. 3 by a guard working for BP's security. The bear died of its wounds 11 days after it was shot. The guard tried shooting the bear with a gun that would startle the animal and scare it off without hurting it, but when this didn't work he instead shot it with a real gun which caused the wound that the bear eventually died of.

The spokesperson for BP's response to this was, "This is not the outcome intended and we feel very badly that this incident had occurred.

The company states that they are changing their policies so this won't happen again.

However, how can they do this? From a PR point they did everything they could do after the fact. The apologized, said it was an accident, and promised it wouldn't happen again. The only wat to avoid it from happening in the first place was to ban the use of lethal weapons among the guards for BP. However, that would bring up the problem of the safety of the guards. Would they be in danger from the polar bears, rather than the other way around. If this polar bear would not have been killed, would the guard have? It is hard to say how this situation could have been handled better, but it does seem that BP has done everything in it's power to control the situation, unless they could tell us how they are ensuring that it won't happen again. Another way to avoid this problem is to stop drilling for oil where endangered species are living and rather to respect the environment.